Lance Armstrong, Lying, and Human Nature

I followed cycling closely when Lance was winning and I’ll never forget how inspired I felt during that seminal moment in the 2001 Tour De France when he was racing past Jan Ullrich up the Alpe D’huez…he won that stage.  

I havent’t followed the doping story of his confession close enough to learn how he got away with it but it is my understanding he had a lot of help…  I feel his punishment is just – I think he should be banned from competitive sports for life.  I know there are many who will disagree with me however, I am hoping my comments will cause them to rethink their position.  

When faced with the idea of doping the “first” time Lance made a decision that the “end justified the means”.  I can only guess how he rationalized his initial decision, but I suspect he was under great pressure from those who stood to benefit from his success and essentially his choice was to “go along” or resist.  I suspect the consequences of resisting would not have been received weill by his sponsors, managers or whomever.  He might have had to give up being the leader or the center of attention or worst case he may have been relegated to a lesser position on the team or depending on his natural ability that of supporter rather than hero.  

I know what it feels like fight for your integrity when you know people won’t like you as much if at all, if you don’t go along.  So here I am years later, certainly not rich from a monetary perspective and with few friends but with my integrity.  The cost of my integrity was high so I do understand the decision Lance faced and who can argue with millions of dollars.  i made a lot of enemies doing the “right thing”, but I suffered for it in many ways.  

Lance had a choice and he decided the money and prestige was more important that whatever we call what he did.  He lied, he cheated and was well compensated for doing so. That’s his legacy and he chose it – willingly.  

If he was allowed to race competitively at this point, what message are we sending to our children – let alone everyone else.  Isn’t our country bad enough without encouraging people to cheat, lie, steal, or whatever to earn a lot of money, get caught, apologize and then let them back in as if nothing has happened.  Think of all those who lost the opportunity to win at his expanse.  An argument could be made that everyone was doing it and perhaps they were.  So we should all compromise our integrity because everyone is doing it?  

There are those who would say “to forgive is divine”, or be compassionate and rise above…  That is one view but the price is the message that it is OK to do it.  We need to “rise above” this situation and take a longer view of the situation.

Think not about Lance but about the message we want to send to the millions of others – play fair or if you decide to cheat or lie or whatever and we catch you, you cannot apologize and participate in whatever endeavor you were involved in…you get one chance to be honorable.  

We need to make a better decision than the Lance’s of the world – we need to set the example we want the rest of us to follow.  Who do we want to invest in – Lance or everyone else?

Huntz Leineweber